Lotus Elise

First Drive: 2008 Lotus Elise Supercharged

The Anti-Godzilla: A sportster that's everything Nissan's mighty GTR is not

This year's high-performance headlines are all about Nissan's gigantus GTR, a two-ton nuke lobbed at Newton's laws of physics. Meanwhile, way below the fold in mouse type we read that Lotus has quietly strengthened its longstanding alliance with fellow Brit, Sir Isaac, by introducing an Elise with Exige S power and 63 fewer pounds worth of "resistance to motion."

Granted, a lightened Lotus is no newsflash, but there's quite a bit more to this one than appears at first blush. For one thing, the engine is quite different from the Exige S's. Both start off as Toyota 2ZZ-GE 1.8-liters, but you'll note right off that there's no intercooler and air scoop blocking the rear window of this one. Instead, an entirely new intake manifold by Magnuson incorporates an Eaton M45 Roots-type supercharger that blows a slight boost directly into the intake runners with no detour through a heat-exchanger. This setup shaves 17.6 pounds off the engine's weight, at a cost of just two horsepower and 12 pound-feet from the Exige S motor's output (leaving 218 and 153).Supercharged Elises get new wheels, a unique spoiler, and a single central exhaust pipe. Inside, the gauge graphics are swapped to white-on-black, soft-touch paint dresses up the dash (it's lighter than foam or leather), and featherweight ProBax seats are designed to rotate the pelvis slightly, better distributing the occupant's weight and dramatically improving blood flow to the legs for greater comfort and less fatigue during long stints in the saddle. (Lotus is first to market with these new-age seats.) Ordering is simplified with two major packages, Touring (niceties like leather or faux-suede seat upholstery, carpeting, sound insulation, an iPod connector, and an artful extruded-aluminum cupholder for $1600) and Sport (Bilstein dampers, ultralight forged wheels, sport seats, traction control, and twin oil coolers for $2600). A limited-slip diff is offered ($1790), but dealers are counseled to steer owners away from this option unless they plan to autocross extensively, because on normal twisty roads it actually detracts somewhat from the handling behavior.And that would be a travesty. From the moment you slip into that form-fitting seat (a task roughly akin to wriggling into a scuba-diving dry suit without the baby powder), it's obvious this platform is optimized for handling, and this configuration is particularly sweet. Its Yokohama Advan Neova AD07 tires offer less extreme levels of grip than the Exige S's Advan A048s. You can probe the limits of this car's grip on a mountain road at sane speeds, which is simply a whole lot more fun than wheeling through the same corner at the same speed nowhere near the limit. With just over 800 pounds of car and driver pressing down on the front wheels, the steering is incredibly light and accurate-the rival of any Porsche's. When attacking a set of switchbacks like the ones scaling California's Mount Palomar, one starts out with an instinctive death-grip on the rim but soon realizes this squelches some of wiggles and twitches the steering rack is sending to describe the nuances of grip and surface texture. Light finger pressure on the tiny (foot-diameter) wheel and about thee-quarters of a turn in either direction are all that's needed to negotiate most switchbacks.The engine improves the car's handling, too, because there's more torque at all engine speeds and greater linearity. The switch to the high-output cam profile happens almost imperceptibly at 4000 rpm in hard running (or as high as 6200 rpm under lighter load), and-if you resist the limited slip-there's enough power to spin one tire in many corners provoking a nice gentle slide that points the car. The new cluster makes it easier to keep a peripheral eye on the three shift-indicator lights that illuminate progressively, then flash over 8000 rpm (redline is 8500 for 1.5 second, 8000 continuous). Choose the Sport package, and turn-in is slightly crisper, the lighter wheels (by 3.3 pounds each) are quicker to accelerate or brake, slightly heightening the rotational effects of late-braking into or powering out of a turn. The ride is also considerably sharper, provoking some additional rattles from the test car's interior.The Elise Supercharged isn't perfect. The shifter occasionally hangs up in the narrow gate during 3-2 downshifts, the horn button placement (outboard on the Momo wheel's spokes) provokes unintended mid-corner toots, the Alpine radio sounds tinny and cheap (the brilliant engine note is vastly preferable), the A/C isn't strong enough to cool the driver with the windows up and top off, and the $55,425 price of entry seems dear for such a minimalist vehicle. What do you want? Sir Isaac's help doesn't come cheap.

2008 Lotus Elise Supercharged

Base Price

$55,425

Vehicle layout

Mid-engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door, removable-roof coupe

Engine

1.8L/218-hp/153-lb-ft supercharged DOHC 16-valve I-4

Transmission

6-speed manual

Curb weight (dist f/r)

2000 lb (mfr)

Wheelbase

90.5 in

Length x width x height

149.0 x 67.7 x 44.0 in

0-60 mph

4.4 sec (mfr est)

EPA city/hwy fuel econ

20/26 mpg

CO2 emmisions

0.87 lb/mile (est)

On sale in U.S.

Currently

Designer Details1. Conspicuous lightness abounds inside. Many of the bonded aluminum extrusions that form the Elise's chassis are on display inside, like the side rails and floor panels.Other aluminum flourishes include the shifter and brake levers, climate-control knobs, under-dash cross-car stowage bin, the Touring package's cupholder, which glides under the dash when not in use, and even the lock knobs.2. ProBax anatomically designed seats rotate the pelvis 1.5 degrees relative to other seats so that the occupant's weight is better supported by the seat. They also improve blood flow to the legs by a claimed 90 percent (measured by taking a blood-pressure reading from the legs, tightening the BP monitor collar, then releasing it quickly and measuring the time needed for BP to return to normal). The new seats negated the need for an adjustable lumbar, saving another 1.1 pound per seat.3. This hinge appears strong enough to allow jacking the car by an open door. Aluminum extrusions are great for low-volume projects like the Elise. That body-side hinge piece would be extruded as a long piece with a continuous cross-section like you see on both ends. This is then cut to length, and the material between the two hinge-pin holes is machined away. Gorgeous.4. That cupholder and bin divider are both extrusions as well. A single, long piece of aluminum would emerge from a tool with the appropriate cross-section and then be cut into half-inch slices. The woven-carbon-fiber-look strap that completes the cupholder is another particularly Lotus flourish.